National brokerages have cast ambitious eyes upon CREC, but the homegrown commercial real estate company has rejected several offers from big-name competitors.

Numerous South Florida firms such as CREC have held onto their stand-alone structures despite a wave of consolidations sweeping through the industry.

“The independent firm — our firm — we have the opportunity to be truly entrepreneurial, to be nimble, to shift very quickly, to forecast trends and respond to the dynamics in the marketplace,” said Carol Brooks, who co-founded CREC in 1989.

The Coral Gables-based company has grown to offer a wide spectrum of services, including asset and property management, tenant representation, construction management and creative workout solutions. With additional offices in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, CREC’s leasing and management portfolio is projected to close the year at 13.5 million square feet, up 18 percent from 2014.

Brooks attributes the growth to the company’s institutional infrastructure combined with an entrepreneurial spirit.

She said CREC is modeled after a law firm. The company brings in top performers as shareholders and gives employees investment opportunities in its real estate deals.

“Everybody’s success is intertwined,” Brooks said.

The Keyes Realty Co., like CREC, has also remained independent despite offers from national rivals.

Keyes, which is active in both commercial and residential markets, chose an alternative route to boost its market share. The company joined forces this year with Palm Beach Gardens-based Illustrated Properties, another independently run company that focuses on golf and high-end waterfront homes.

Mike Pappas, president and CEO of Keyes, said the merger allows them to leverage shared resources, specifically technology. The two companies continue to operate under their existing brand names and maintained their management teams and employees after the merger.

“We believe that we are partnering with our associates,” Pappas said. “In fact we celebrate collective independence. We’re independent, and our associates are independent. We allow them flexibility and freedom in our model that lets them do business the way they want to do it, whereas the corporate model is more structured and rule-oriented.”

A number of real estate companies, however, have opted for corporate ownership over the past two years.

Taylor & Mathis of Florida LLC sold to Cushman & Wakefield in August. Cushman also acquired Miami-based property manager Gibson Realty Group last April. The deals followed a $2 billion merger with Chicago-based DTZ, which significantly boosted Cushman’s national footprint.

The mandate after the DTZ merger was to “really grow the company and increase our market share,” said Larry Richey, a managing principal who leads the company’s Florida operations.

Cushman has since added over 300 people in Florida, two-thirds in South Florida.

The company competed against other brokerages for its South Florida acquisitions, Richey said.

Last year, Colliers International Group Inc. took over Miami-based Pointe Group Advisors LLC to strengthen the global company’s services in the region.

JLL went on to acquire Cresa South Florida, which focuses on tenant representation, for similar reasons.

Avison Young expanded its footprint two years ago when it purchased Abood Wood-Fay Real Estate Group LLC, a commercial brokerage and property management company that used to operate as Colliers International South Florida. Avison Young also purchased WG Compass Realty Cos. in West Palm Beach in 2013.

“It’s pretty phenomenal that that has not happened at CREC,” Brooks said.

When asked if CREC would always reject offers, co-founder and chairman Warren Weiser replied, “Always is a long time, but I don’t see us being anything but an independent firm.”

When Peter Mekras began marketing three residential buildings in Miami Gardens, he launched a broad campaign that went beyond distributing “For Sale” flyers.

Mekras, who is senior vice president at CREC in Coral Gables, was tapped to sell 347 units in a 412-unit community called The Ellington. The residential complex is home to two apartment buildings and one fractured condominium.

It was Mekras’ job to find a buyer for 260 apartments in two rental buildings and 87 unsold condos in a 150-unit building that went through an unsuccessful condo conversion.

On paper, the deal may have appeared as a messy, convoluted transaction.

“When you’re dealing with a transaction that’s more complex, some people may see the property and think it’s not for them,” Mekras said. “It’s only through a conversation that you open their eyes.”

While Mekras sent out several flyers and email campaigns, he picked up the phone more often.

CREC takes a more boutique approach when representing its clients, he said. Mekras routinely calls dozens of potential buyers when he receives an assignment to create a broader candidate pool. He realizes that without that personalized call, the probability of catching an investor’s attention is significantly less.

When RAIT Financial Trust handed Mekras the listing, the seller asked for a closing by year-end. The Philadelphia-based real estate investment trust purchased the community for $32 million in 2011.

The Ellington was built in 1974 on County Line Road near the border of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.

Mekras said finding a large-scale investment opportunity in Miami-Dade has become increasingly difficult, especially one with a value-add component. When The Ellington’s units hit the market, hundreds of groups were drawn to the property.

Over 200 signed confidentiality agreements to learn more about the deal.

“That was our goal,” he said. “We went wide and broad and deep to not miss out on the anomaly buyer.”

Mekras said the level of interest generated and the subsequent sale price speak to the depth of demand from investors seeking stable cash flow in South Florida.

Despite the competitive market, the asset was still a tough sell. Today’s apartment buyers are usually looking for product that could be backed by agency financing. These properties, however, were not seen as simple Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executions.

But Mekras was able to identify alternative lenders that would be willing to finance a deal that involved two apartment buildings and a fractured condo.

“Our process is not just putting the property out there, but also acting as an adviser to our client,” he said. “Price is a very important variable but not the only variable in the transaction.”

Because the transaction involved numerous homeowners’ associations, different parcels and several moving parts, it was quite an accomplishment when the deal was contracted and closed in 31 days.

The 347 units sold for $36.2 million, or about $104,000 per unit.

Mekras declined to identify the buyer but allowed that he or she was chosen after an in-depth interview process. CREC’s marketing process involves questionnaires that ask prospective purchasers details about their underwriting, the source of their debt, their equity and track record of closing transactions.

The final buyer’s responses were “nearly perfect.”

“When you end up with that situation, combined with very strong deal terms, it’s like getting an A on your report card,” he said. “It’s pretty hard not to put them at the top of the list.”

Mekras noted that South Florida’s population and job base continues to outpace the region’s housing supply. Any weakening observed in the rental apartment market is primarily a short-term absorption challenge, he said, and not a long-term supply and demand imbalance.

“While rent growth may slow near-term, South Florida will once again complete this development cycle and be undersupplied,” he added. “This is the pattern of our cyclical, but robust and high-barrier-to-entry market.”

Mekras, who joined CREC in 2009, has a track record of representing over $1.7 billion, 18,000 units and 12 million square feet of closed sale and capital markets transactions. He was instrumental in closing the $108 million financing of the 497-unit Melody Tower in downtown Miami.

CREC has been appointed to lead leasing at three office properties in South Florida’s key office markets of Brickell and Coral Gables.

The office buildings become the latest addition to CREC’s portfolio, which includes more than 100 properties totaling 13 million square feet across the state’s major markets. As the commercial real estate industry continues to consolidate amongst national firms, CREC remains Florida’s premier independent full-service commercial real estate firm, with offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

“We are thrilled with this new assignment, which comes on the heels of two other significant leasing and management contracts for institutional partners, highlighting CREC’s ability to continue to thrive and differentiate in a market otherwise defined by consolidation within the national brokerage houses,” said Carol Brooks, President of CREC.

“Our institutional clients enjoy our full-service platform, local market expertise and track record to provide a holistic approach to real estate services,” CREC’s Steven Hurwitz said. “We have a uniquely collaborative team approach among disciplines, enabling us to provide institutional quality service in an entrepreneurial setting.”

The newest CREC assignments include:

• 800 Brickell Avenue: Located in Miami’s Brickell Financial District, CREC will lead the leasing efforts at the 15-story office tower 800 Brickell Avenue that has more than 212,000 square feet of office space and is home to tenants such as TotalBank, StateTrust, Prudential Insurance and Anheuser-Busch Companies.

• The Alhambra: Situated in the heart of the Coral Gables Business District, CREC will oversee the leasing of The Alhambra office property located at 2 Alhambra Plaza. The building has 221,000 square feet of rentable office space and a tenant roster that includes Disney, Crystal Lagoons, Campbell Sales and Gresham, Smith and Partners.

• The Alhambra West: Just a few blocks east, CREC will also handle the leasing at The Alhambra West, an office building totaling 91,000 square feet at 95 Merrick Way. The office property is home to tenants such as Northwestern University, Starbucks, US Department of State, and Pipeline Workspaces.

He built a small café, The Corner Muse, that helped breathe new life into Miami’s Edgewater district at a time when drug dealers and street walkers worked openly. But when the neighborhood came up, so did his rent. And at the end of his five-year lease, after he had renovated the space into a thriving restaurant, his landlord tried to nearly triple his rent — and forced him out when he couldn’t pay.

The upscale seafood restaurant Mignonette now stands where Scharnitz’s dream once did.

“You bring people there. You build up the neighborhood. And when your lease is up, they don’t care — you’re out,” Scharnitz said.

Restaurants, like artists, move into depressed neighborhoods where rents are cheap, hoping their fans will follow. And when they do, they are often the first ones priced out.

It’s happening across Miami.

In May, Michelle Bernstein’s signature restaurant in the Mimo neighborhood, CENA by Michy’s, closed after a 10-year run. So did Mimo’s The Federal, even after a drastic, last-ditch makeover.

A key culprit in both cases? Rising rents.

South Florida’s smoking-hot commercial real estate market is pricing restaurants out. Rents have quadrupled in popular areas such as Brickell, Wynwood and the Upper East Side over the last few years, brokers and developers say. (Renters are feeling the same heat on the residential side, too.)

“It’s almost like New York real estate right now,” said Ivo Tsinev, a broker at Colliers International South Florida who represents both national chains and chef-driven restaurants.

The region’s appetite for restaurants is insatiable, research shows. People are eating out more and shopping at grocery stores less.

To wit: In Miami’s greater downtown, restaurant sales hit nearly $735 million in 2014, according to the Downtown Development Authority. That was up 78 percent over 2013.

And South Florida diners are dropping more cash than ever: Consumer restaurant spending in the region is growing at the second-fastest rate in the country, new statistics from brokerage CBRE say.

Landlords see that success and are asking chefs to pay up — or get out.

The perks of being a landlord

Scharnitz decided it wasn’t going to happen to him again.

Five years ago, he bought a building “for a song” ($280,000 for 3,490 square feet of space) on Northeast 54th Street in the heart of Little Haiti. That was before speculators decided it could be the next Wynwood, when he still had to worry about getting robbed like one of his managers did.

He ran his catering business out of the back. In February, when he thought the neighborhood was ready, he opened Philly Grub, making authentic cheesesteaks with shaved sirloin and housemade cheese “whiz.”

The restaurant is part of Little Haiti’s gentrification, bringing with it adventurous new customers — as well as rapidly rising rents. It’s the same old story — even in neighborhoods that have yet to prove themselves, rising rents push out restaurants that blazed a trail.

“People told me I was crazy,” Scharnitz said. “And the crazier they told me I was, the more I knew I had to do it. If you don’t buy your building, there’s just no way you can do it.”

Bernstein, an international award-winning chef raised in Miami, knows all about the dangers of not owning your own space.

She grew up in Mimo — the Miami Modern district along North Biscayne Boulevard south of 80th Street — and led the neighborhood’s revival by using her name to draw fans to a desolate part of town. She and chef/husband David Martinez even bought a house there. They still live there, but their restaurant is no longer part of the neighborhood it helped build.

“It’s devastating,” Bernstein said at the time. “We totally vested ourselves in that neighborhood.”

The issue? The building was sold before they signed a lease extension and the new owners asked nearly three times the rent, almost $60 a square foot. Bernstein had even renovated the restaurant a year ago, thinking she’d be there long term.

For her fans, it was like Emeril Lagasse being priced out of New Orleans.

“It’s indicative of what’s going on and what is going to continue going on in Miami,” said CENA co-owner Steven Perricone, a former New York restaurateur and developer who bought the property for Italian restaurant and market Perricone’s in 1994, when Brickell was a fine-dining wasteland.

Finding an area like Brickell or, perhaps, Little Haiti or Little River, before it blows up is hard.

If a chef wants to open up in an already established neighborhood, owning just isn’t realistic, said Andreas Schreiner, who owns the Pubbelly restaurant group, with locations in Sunset Harbor and downtown Miami.

“It’s a nice dream to do it, but the way real estate prices are now, it’s a little prohibitive, especially on the Beach,” Schreiner said. “We’re looking to expand on the mainland, but even in places like Wynwood or the Midtown corridor, prices have really gone up. So to be able to purchase … it’s just too much.”

At the mercy of the market

Owning a restaurant is a risky business.

The industry is rife with turnover. Some spots close before people even know they are open, even excellent ones such as Bazi, which folded after less than six months in ultra-competitive South Beach, despite a 3 1/2-star Miami Herald review.

But what’s happening in South Florida’s restaurant scene now is different, experts say.

It took Tsinev, the broker, two years to find the perfect space for one client in downtown Miami. He’s even given up using commercial real estate databases to find locations, because there’s too much competition for not enough space. Instead, he cold-calls landlords, from Miami’s Parks and Recreation Department to the Dominican consulate, to see if they’re interested in leasing to a restaurant. (It’s working, he says.)

“The gap is getting wider and wider between what landlords need to recover and what the chefs and all of these restaurants can afford to pay,” Tsinev said. “I’m not saying we’re in a bubble. But I hope it starts slowing down soon.”

The debacle at CENA wasn’t the first time rents have displaced Martinez and Bernstein. Their Sra. Martinez in the Design District folded after their rents went from $15 a square foot to nearly $50, from one lease to the next.

Martinez is stunned at the rents landlords are asking today. In Little Haiti, prices are nearly $40 a square foot. Even in Allapattah, he is seeing landlords asking $30 a square foot compared to less than $10 a year ago.

“Rents go up before a neighborhood proves itself in Miami,” Martinez said. “Rents are going to have to come down unless landlords don’t mind seeing their buildings empty.” More and more restaurants are opening outside the traditional hotspots of Brickell and South Beach. Some chefs are looking to suburbs, such as Kendall and Doral, said CREC broker Rafael Romero. “It creates a bidding war,” he said.

Drew Schaul of leasing firm RKF agreed. “The market is as tight as it’s ever been,” he said. “There’s a limited supply of great restaurant space, especially for the higher-end, chef-driven restaurant concept.”

Not all the new competition is up to snuff.

Many wealthy foreigners see opening a restaurant in Miami as a better investment than leaving their cash in struggling Latin American and European economies, said Emran Ally, a broker at CBRE. Some of the investors don’t know how to run a restaurant or play the real estate market.

“A lot of those tenants overpay [for space] and then landlords start charging more and the menu prices rise and it’s a slippery slope,” Ally said.

Most retail leases require tenants to pay property taxes, maintenance and insurance, on top of monthly rent.

If a buyer comes in and scoops up a building for a big price, Miami-Dade County will likely assess the property at a higher value — raising the taxes and leaving the restaurant tenant on the hook for the higher bill. That’s in addition to the new owner asking more rent once the original lease expires.

There are signs South Florida’s commercial real estate market could slow down — but they’re still far off.

For one, Miami’s residential building boom is cooling as sales plummet, meaning retail developers will face less competition from condo projects. The threat of Zika could also hinder tourism in the region, depressing restaurant sales.

‘Feed the neighborhood and it will feed you’

Restaurants can only run so far. Eventually, rents catch up.

Fiorito Argentine restaurant was a pioneer when it moved into Little Haiti, a block north of the famous Churchill’s music venue, four years ago. Most of its customers are from outside the area. The restaurant is drawing people from Miami Shores and El Portal and helping build interest in Little Haiti.

But Fiorito has seen its rent triple since it moved in. The owners, brothers Maximiliano and Cristian Álvarez, hope to grow with the neighborhood, but they already suspect one day they might have to relocate.

“Rents have gone way up,” Maximiliano Álvarez said. “People are running from higher rents, but eventually they all go up.”

When rents go up, chefs can’t just charge more for mac ‘n’ cheese, the way a boutique might mark up yoga pants.

“People feel we’re trying to take advantage of them,” Álvarez said.

Several chefs said the best-run restaurants make about a quarter on every dollar. An average one gets eight to 10 cents.

“Our bread is expensive enough,” jokes Zak Stern, who has developed a cult following in Wynwood as Zak the Baker. “High-quality food shouldn’t just be for the very wealthy.”

But good neighborhoods need good restaurants. A restaurant like Zak the Baker can build a community in ways an Old Navy or Banana Republic can’t.

When Zak the Baker was looking to open in Wynwood, Furst made it happen. Goldman — which owns more than 30 properties in the neighborhood — designed and built a space for him and financed the deal.

When it came time to open a full production bakery in the heart of Wynwood (set to open in September), Goldman offered Stern a 10-year lease and favorable terms to keep him from moving to Doral or Medley.

“It’s in their interest not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg,” Stern said.

Some landlords see the logic in cutting restaurants a bit of slack.

“The restaurants, they bring people every day,” said Craig Robins, the developer who owns roughly three-quarters of properties in the Design District.

Robins said he generally charges restaurants about 25 percent of what his retailers pay.

Although he makes more money renting to Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Gucci, he says restaurants are crucial to the success of the luxury shopping mecca.

“People go out to eat much more than they shop,” said Robins, who is planning to open 10 restaurants by fall 2017.

Major property owners like Goldman and Robins are the exception. Because they own so many properties, they can afford to rent to restaurants at a lower rate. Smaller landlords can’t always do that, if they’re thinking about the bottom line.

But focusing only on the bottom line can kill a neighborhood.

Just ask Coconut Grove. Landlords brought in retailers and national chains with no connection to the community in the 1990s and the crowds lost interest. Only now that more independent eateries are opening — 33 Kitchen, Ariete, Glass and Vine, Lokal, Panther Coffee and Strada, just to name a few — is Coconut Grove experiencing a revival.

It’s a lesson for Mimo, Little River, Little Haiti — and the chefs taking a chance on the next up-and-coming neighborhood. Your success could be your undoing, unless you buy in on the ground floor.

“Nobody’s going to tell me I have to leave,” said Philly Grub’s owner, Scharnitz. “I’m here for the long haul.”

Eighteen months after acquiring Royal University Plaza in Coral Springs, Florida, owner CPAC Royal University, LLC, a joint venture between principals of CREC and Lubert Adler, has finalized a dramatic repositioning that more than doubled occupancy, added 15,000 square feet of rentable retail space, and lured high-profile anchors including Orchard Supply and Total Wine & More to the neighborhood shopping center.

Located at 2556 North University Drive, Royal University Plaza was an underperforming asset when CPAC and Lubert Adler purchased the property for $26 million in February 2015. At the time, the center was 45 percent occupied and in need of significant capital improvements that would help attract major national brands to the center situated at the high-volume intersection of University Drive and Royal Palm Boulevard.

Central to the JV ownership group’s turnaround was enlisting CREC to undertake an aggressive retail leasing and marketing campaign and oversee a series of capital improvements, including a 15,000-square-foot expansion that opened the door to a new 37,000-square-foot Orchard Supply store set to open in November – one of the brand’s first locations in South Florida.

“As we began evaluating the neighborhood following last year’s acquisition, we quickly identified a lack of available boxes capable of attracting junior anchors,” says Alan Esquenazi, a partner at CREC. “By reconfiguring storefronts and adding additional space, we transformed Royal University Plaza into a top-performing asset in the Coral Springs neighborhood within a year-and-a-half.”

Today, the 115,000-square-foot Royal University Plaza is 94 percent leased and home to a tenant roster that includes Total Wine & More, Pet Supermarket, Jimmy John’s, Third Federal Bank, Hertz Rental Cars, Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., and AAA Auto Club.

“Royal University Plaza is a classic example of a retail asset that benefitted from a creative approach to leasing, marketing and construction management,” explains CPAC Principal Warren Weiser. “We identified an underperforming property in a submarket that was home to strong demographics and CREC executed a strategy that maximized asset value and elevated the center’s appeal among some of the country’s hottest retail brands.”

The new location will be managed by veteran Miami lawyer Robert “Bobby” Gilbert, who became a name partner after joining the firm last fall. Gilbert left Grossman Roth to oversee and expand Kopelowitz Ostrow’s complex litigation and class action practice.

“By opening our office in Coral Gables, we’ll be able to continue building our team and providing the full range of services to our clients and co-counsel across South Florida,” he said in a statement.

The office will be home to eight of the firm’s 45 or so attorneys come August.

Carol Brooks, president of Coral Gables-based CREC, represented the firm in the lease transaction. No other details were released.

The Coral Gables office market is getting an added boost thanks to the expansion of the only publicly-traded, pure-play US Hispanic tv/cable networks and content platform and a Broward law firm opening its first permanent office in Miami-Dade. Hemisphere Media Group, Inc. will relocate and expand its headquarters to 4000 Ponce de Leon Blvd., while new arrival Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Gilbert will open its newest office at 2800 Ponce de Leon Boulevard. The two leases total a combined 13,000 square feet of Class A office space.

Carol Brooks, President of Coral Gables-based CREC, one of Florida’s largest commercial real estate services firms, represented Hemisphere and Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Gilbert in the two transactions. William Holly of Patton Real Estate represented the owner of 4000 Ponce de Leon Blvd., CMC Group.

The leases come as new investment pours into the Coral Gables business district. A $21 million makeover of the neighborhood’s main retail thoroughfares, Miracle Mile and Giralda Avenue, is underway; more than 85 new restaurants have opened in the last five years; and over 1,500 residential units are expected to come online by 2020.

“The Gables is surging as new companies enter what has always been one of Miami’s most desirable submarkets and existing firms expand,” explains CREC President Carol Brooks, who advised both firms in their leases. “Our tenant representation team took the time to learn the needs of Hemisphere and Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Gilbert, and then created a leasing strategy that will meet both firms’ current and future real estate requirements. The result will be new absorption for the Coral Gables office market.”

Hemisphere owns and operates five leading U.S. Hispanic cable networks, two Latin American cable networks, and the leading broadcast television network in Puerto Rico. The firm was located at 2000 Ponce de Leon Blvd., but recently decided to relocate to an 8,000-square-foot space with the goal of modernizing its space and establishing a defined headquarters that could accommodate its entire staff.

“As we have grown, we took on additional non-contiguous space and this move will put us all under one roof, so we can work more efficiently,” says Hemisphere President and CEO Alan J. Sokol. “After surveying the market with CREC, we concluded that 4000 Ponce was the right choice due to the building’s location and modern finishes. We couldn’t be happier with our new headquarters, and we’re thrilled that we’re remaining in Coral Gables.”

Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Gilbert is a full-service South Florida law firm with approximately 45 lawyers that represent clients of all sizes, from entrepreneurs to large public companies. The firm’s main office is in Fort Lauderdale. The new Coral Gables location, which totals nearly 5,000 square feet, opens following the arrival last year of veteran Miami lawyer Bobby Gilbert, who is overseeing and expanding the firm’s complex litigation and class action practice.

“By opening our office in Coral Gables, we’ll be able to continue building our team and providing the full range of services to our clients and co-counsel across South Florida,” says Gilbert, who will manage the Coral Gables office.

About CREC

Founded in 1989 by Chairman Warren Weiser and President Carol Brooks, CREC (Continental Real Estate Companies) is one of Florida’s largest commercial real estate services firms, managing a portfolio of more than 100 office, retail and multifamily properties totaling 11.4 million square-feet. With offices throughout Florida, CREC specializes in asset and property management, leasing, tenant representation, construction management, development dispositions and finance, and creative workout solutions. For more information, visit www.crec.com.

About Hemisphere Media Group, Inc.

Hemisphere Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HMTV) is the only publicly traded pure-play U.S. media company targeting the high growth Spanish-language television and cable networks business in the U.S. and Latin America. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Hemisphere owns and operates five leading U.S. Hispanic cable networks, two Latin American cable networks, and the leading broadcast television network in Puerto Rico. Hemisphere’s networks consist of: Cinelatino, the leading Spanish-language movie channel with over 16 million subscribers across the U.S., Latin America and Canada, including 4.5 million subscribers in the U.S. and 12.3 million subscribers in Latin America, featuring the largest selection of contemporary Spanish-language blockbusters and critically-acclaimed titles from Mexico, Latin America, Spain and the Caribbean; WAPA, Puerto Rico’s leading broadcast television network with the highest primetime and full day ratings in Puerto Rico. Founded in 1954, WAPA produces more than 75 hours per week of top-rated news and entertainment programming; WAPA America, the leading cable network targeting Puerto Ricans and other Caribbean Hispanics living in the U.S., featuring the highly-rated news and entertainment programming produced by WAPA. WAPA America is distributed in the U.S. to 5.2 million subscribers; Pasiones, dedicated to showcasing the most popular telenovelas and drama series, distributed in the U.S. and Latin America. Pasiones has 4.4 million subscribers in the U.S. and 10.6 million subscribers in Latin America; Centroamerica TV, the leading network targeting Central Americans living in the U.S., the third-largest U.S. Hispanic group, featuring the most popular news, entertainment and soccer programming from Central America. Centroamerica TV is distributed in the U.S. to 4.0 million subscribers; and Television Dominicana, the leading network targeting Dominicans living in the U.S., featuring the most popular news, entertainment and baseball programming from the Dominican Republic. Television Dominicana is distributed in the U.S. to 3.0 million subscribers. For more information, visit www.hemispheretv.com.

Carla Vianna | Daily Business Review

About 20 locations from Miami to Jupiter will be up for grabs once the debt-laden sporting goods retailer closes its doors in bankruptcy. Averaging 40,000 square feet, the large stores threaten to inflate the market by nearly 1 million square feet when big-box retailers are physically downsizing.

A dwindling market for department stores makes finding a tenant for extra-large spaces more difficult than releasing boutique-size shops catering to lifestyle brands, said Gunster real estate attorney Brian Belt. The Miami shareholder said big-box stores sit on the market longer, which could hurt smaller tenants nearby that counted on the foot traffic generated by their bigger neighbor.

If landlords fail to attract a sizable retailer, the large spaces may be retooled into gyms or other uses that “don’t generate as much income,” Belt said.

When Sports Authority shuts its doors, hundreds of stores across the U.S. may go dark — and stay dark.

South Florida, however, is somewhat immune to the “retail apocalypse,” said Alan Esquenazi, a principal at CREC who has represented Sports Authority in the past.

Brokers are confident the retailer’s South Florida locations won’t sit vacant for long.

Esquenazi said Sports Authority “traditionally went for high-profile, great locations.”

These include the street-level store at the popular Shops at Midtown Miami and a spot at Dadeland Station in suburban Kendall. The bankrupt retailer also has a presence at Dolphin Mall and Sawgrass Mills.

Steven Henenfeld, CREC’s director of retail leasing, said the closings open prime sites for tenants looking to upgrade their position in the market and give landlords the opportunity to push up rents when a newcomer moves in.

“South Florida in general will fare better with respect to Sports Authority’s vacancies than a lot of other markets because our retail numbers are very, very strong,” Belt said.

Retail vacancies dropped to 3.2 percent in Miami-Dade County and 5.3 percent in Broward County during the first quarter, according to CBRE Inc.

A bankruptcy auction will be held June 29 for 320 of the chain’s 463 store leases, including 18 in South Florida totaling 715,000 square feet. New York-based A&G Realty Partners LLC will accept bids until June 23.

“After the June 29 date, we will have a better idea of what is going to be left available,” said CBRE senior vice president Paco Diaz.

Diaz said the top two contenders could be Dick’s Sporting Goods and Orchard Supply Hardware.

Lowe’s purchased Orchard Supply in 2013 and last year announced plans to add 40 stores, according to a retail report by Orlando-based Crossman & Co.

“Retailers at every end of the spectrum are reevaluating their footprints,” the report said. Healthy retailers are “exploring smaller stores to gain access to urban consumers where real estate costs can be prohibitive.”

While large department-store brands like Macy’s have struggled with underperforming assets — over the past five years the retailer closed 52 locations — discount retailers like Ross Stores Inc. boast healthy performances and could be viable contenders for Sports Authority’s defunct locations.

MIAMI—“The fact that the Miami Tower’s price doubled in less than decade is proof that the investor appetite for existing office space is driving property values to record levels.”

The sale price on the 631,672-square-foot office asset: $220 million.

MIAMI—The Japanese corporation Sumitomo recently paid $220 million for the iconic, light-changing Miami Tower in Downtown Miami. Call it the latest sign that the investor appetite for Miami’s commercial real estate market is still intensifying.

Domestic and international investor interest continues to drive property values to record levels. For example, the Miami Tower was last sold for $105 million five years ago. The sale price doubled in about five years.

“The fact that the Miami Tower’s price doubled in less than decade is proof that the investor appetite for existing office space is driving property values to record levels,” Ezra Katz, CEO of Aztec Group, tells GlobeSt.com. “As Miami’s booming condo market outbids office developers for available land, the amount of inventory is not keeping up with the rising demand for office space. We expect that office rents and sale prices will continue to rise as supply becomes more constrained and investor demand increases.”

The past year has seen a series of similar office deals, including the $140 million sale of 777 Brickell, the $112 million sale of 800 Brickell, and the $142 million sale of Espirito Santo Plaza, all trophy assets in Miami’s financial district.

Miami’s booming condo market has also impacted the ability of institutional investors and office developers to compete for land, since condo developers will outbid them every time. As a result, Miami’s office market is seeing steady rising rental rates and increased demand, but little new office inventory to meet the rising demand.

These market fundamentals point to the reasons why Sumitomo would pay top dollar for an office asset like Miami Tower, and all signs point to other office properties trading hands as deep-pocketed investors seek top-performing assets to add to their portfolios as market conditions continue to strengthen favoring landlords.

“Sumitomo’s pickup of Miami Tower is another example of an institutional buyer targeting a performing asset amidst high barriers to new office development across South Florida,” Warren Weiser, chairman of CREC, tells GlobeSt.com. “Building a stand-alone office tower from the ground-up in today’s market has become cost prohibitive just as demand for Miami real estatesoars. This is putting existing buildings benefitting from quality locations and strong income in-place at a premium.”